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and selfishness. I did not propose to give up 

 self for anyboJy or any thing ; nor did I 

 propose to let go of any of my privileges. I 

 wanted freedom— freedom to do right or 

 freedom to do wrong; freedom to commit 

 (•fi>ii<\ to put it plainly, whenever it should 

 become very much of an object for me to 

 commit crime. You may think this is a 

 hard way of talking. 1 admit it. You may 

 say, too, " (iod have pity on such a specimen 

 of a man as you used to" be." I say amen to 

 that too ; and may (jlod in his infinite mercy 

 have pity on any who are in the toils of sin. 

 Now, then, dear friends, what effect did 

 l)ecoming a riiristian have on my life? What 

 effect oiiqhl a profession of Chiistianity to 

 have on "any man's life V Why, it had this 

 effect on my life. I can express it l)etter by 

 a little text than by any words of my own, 

 although at the time t decided to accept 

 Christ and become a Christian, I had not 

 noticed the text, which is this : 



Thou slialt love the Lord thy Cod witli all thy 

 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 

 and with all thy strength ; and thy nciffhhor as thy- 

 self. 



This I resolved to do before men, and I re- 

 solved to do it before (Jod. Some of you 

 may remember that it was while I was alone 

 by inyself— no human eye near. I just knelt 

 down alone and told (Jod what I had resolv- 

 ed to do, and asked his heli), and received a 

 promise of help there on tiie spot. Now. do 

 not misunderstand me. and <lo not criticise 

 me too severely, when I tell you that, from 

 that moment to this, I have never once had 

 a tiioiiulit of turning back and lejecling 

 (;o(i. I have met temptations, and some- 

 times sore ones. Sometimes I iiave given 

 way to temptations, and acted in a very nn- 

 christianlike way -in a \va> tiiat many would 

 say," A pretty sjtecinit'n voii aic. for a Chiis- 

 tian ! "" Ihit'at the time I liad no dclilterate 

 pnri)ose of letting go my religion, or ot turn- 

 ing back from the resohit ion I have sjHiken 

 of. Just one illustration: Sometimes wlien 

 stirred up it seemed to me to be a Cliristian 

 duty to give somelxxly a piece of my mind, 

 and, of course, when I got started I said 

 more and went furthei- than I had int«'nded 

 to. I aftei-ward saw my mistake, and asked 

 (Jod's forgiveness, and oftentimes asked for- 

 giveness (if the one I had si)oken to with loo 

 nnich harshness. Instead of a deliberate 

 sin it was a mistake, and (iod taught me to 

 avoid such mistakes in future by resolving to 

 wait an hoiu. or even twenty-lour hoius, if 

 the case seemed to demand it, Itefoie admin- 

 isteiiug the reproof that I knew it was my 

 duty to administer. Yon see, I grew in the 

 Christian graces, and every Ciuistian ought 

 to grow every year of his life. 



In the above illustration you can see there 

 was no deliberate purpose of disobeying 

 (Jod ; but I committed a sin nevertheless, by 

 acting hastily and without wisdom. Chris- 

 tians oftentimes commit sin by (/((/////)(;/ with 

 temiitations. They sin because tlie> do not 

 turn resolutely and i)romptly away from 

 evil. This is almost unavoidable because we 

 are human. "lie knoweth our frame, that 

 we are but dust."" Well, a Christian ought 

 to learn to overcome selfishness in the same 

 way he overcomes an evil temper — choke it 



down at the outset ; therefore he should im- 

 prove in honesty. 



Let us emphasize a little the importance of 

 standing up before men when you decide to 

 accept Christ. It seems to me it is not in the 

 power of any human being to stand safe and 

 sure without confessing Christ before men. 

 The first thing to do is to tell (rod of your 

 decision, and then straight afterward tell the 

 world of this resolution. It does not amount 

 to anv thing unless yon confess Christ pub- 

 licly. " The best way of doing this, as it seems 

 to me, is to unite with any body of Christians 

 near you. Yo\i know, Jesus told the lawyer 

 that, after loving (iod with all his soul and 

 strength, he must love his neighbor. You 

 can not very well love your neighbor with- 

 out his knoVving it. (Jod wants to be honor- 

 ed ; and to love him with all your mind and 

 strength, without saying a word to anybody, 

 would be dishonoring him. It would be 

 equivalent to being ashamed of him. Asham- 

 ed of Jesus! why. the thought is in itself 

 awful. Now. then, after you have made this 

 public i)rofessiou von must r.K honest or 

 yon will straightway be branded as a hypo- 

 crite, and so you ought to be. Friend Brown 

 says. " According to my experience, people 

 belonging to the churcirwill bear watching."' 

 That is right; bv all means, watch Chris- 

 tians. Why, I love to be watched. I want 

 i you to count, measme. and weigli every 

 thing yon buv of me. I want yon to find 

 fault, "and co'mplain. I want v"ou to say. 

 •• Mr. Hoot, is this Christianlike V "" I want 

 you to say. •• We be brethren." I want you 

 to (juote texts. i)oiui(l it into me. straighten 

 me up, and let us all straighten each (»ther 

 up. Jf some brother in his zeal strives to 

 get a mote out of your eye wlien it seems to 

 vou he has already got a l)eam in his own 

 eve. take it smilingly and lovingly, foi' he 

 is a brother notwitlistanding. Christ died 

 for him. Peter says : 



What glory is it. it', when ve he InitVeted lor yonr 

 1'aiilts, ve shall take it iiatiimtly? Init il, when >e do 

 well, and siilVer lor it, ye tafi" it patiently, this is ae- 

 eei)tal)le with Cod. 



" Acceptable with (Jod : " To l)e sure, it 

 is. The friends have accused me of mixing 

 religion and business. Win. the trouble is 

 I have not mixed them lialf enougji— that is, 

 practical religion. .Vs well might one object 

 to mixing honesty with business. Did ycni 

 ever heai- of a man mixing too nnich hon- 

 esty and truthfuliu'ss with his business 

 transactions? Why.no; smely not. 



Not very long ago I had a talk in regard 

 to the expression, " For Ciirisfs sake."' 

 Now sui)p<ise, when somebody asks yon why 

 vou are honest, instead of saying. " Because 

 iionestv is the best jtolicv."" say. " I am hon- 

 est for"Clirist's sake."" One of the friends 

 said a few months agt), that he did not give 

 up tobacco because he wanted a smoker, 

 nor becatise he thought it hurt him. but he 

 stoi)i>ed using it " for Christ "s sake."" How 

 does that sound, friends? Is it not a little 

 more wortliy of sensible and rational beings, 

 than to say," I am honest because honesty 

 is tlie best policy""? or " because I make 

 more friends by it, save more money, w in a 

 great name, make people look and stare, and 

 say, 'How wonderfully honest he isl' '"y 



